Harry Potter and the Chasm of Souls
by Queen Farli
Summary: Ignore, will be changed eventually but my 12 year old ramblings are practically illegible.
1. The Letters

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this chapter, I own only the plot! 

A/N Any parts of the story in **bold** are not relevant to this particular story and optional to read, only read if you want to know what my bored mind came up with lol. You might find those bits tedious and boring though...

All nonsense words are just Latin, changed and twisted a bit and rather unpronounceable.

Reviews welcome, constructive criticism implored, um, thanks for reading my first Fan Fic.

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Wearily, Harry James Potter peeled back the beautiful, crimson and gold curtains of his study, in number 12 Grimmauld place, and gave a cry of astonishment. At the exclamation, Ron Bilius Weasly and Hermione Jane Granger rushed into the room, closely followed by Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasly. "What's wrong, Harry, what's up?!" panted Ron, puffed from sprinting up two flights of stairs. "In reverse order, two things, and no, nothing's wrong," he turned energetically, a large grin splitting his face open. "There is no-one outside!" he stated. There were gasps of surprise, satisfaction and pleasure. "At_ last_", "Finally", "Maybe now we can go out and get some necessities without reporters hounding our every step!" the last remark came from Hermione, obviously, and was met by tolerant groans and cries of "Fun too!" from the other three.

Barely nine days previously, Harry had defeated Voldermort in a duel to the , making their lives busier and more interrupted than ever before. After Harry had awoken from his short but coma –like sleep, due to physical, emotional and magical exhaustion, they had had to answer millions of questions by nosy reporters on where they had been during the previous year and how had he survived the forest again and again. In the end he called the attention of a huge bunch of reporters and showed them his chest. All around his heart, in about a three inch radius, were scores of miniature scars, identical in shape to the one on his forehead but pale and that made the reporters turn away embarrassed then shower him with more questions, namely: how did he survived the curse for the second time? He gave the answer of going to save the wizarding world as a whole and thus being rebenifited by his mother's protection again, with the added bonus of tricking Voldermort to fight on _his_ terms and stopping Voldermort's spells from doing anything lasting. Though the reporters then looked awed at the 17 year old boy who had done so much they kept returning. Harry soon got very irritated by the persistent irritation. After a violent outburst which involved a violent burst of al magic which made all their quills alight and there hands turn into clawless, cat's paws of proportionate size they let him go to bed, as the affected ones needed to go to St. Mungo's and the unaffected still didn't have any quills.

At first, Ron had revelled at the spotlight achieved by the down fall of Voldermort, the other two allowing him to tell about the Horcruxes as long as he left Harry out of it. But after a short while, even he got tired of all the constant questioning and scrutiny. In the of night Harry had summoned Kreacher to take them home and had got a great shock at finding him appearing with Winky beside him, kissing passionately. They came apart, mortified and embarrassed and were about to beat themselves unconscious when Harry sternly commanded that the elves were not to punish themselves if Winky wished to work for him, Harry, and the others, and live with Harry at 12 Grimmauld place. Winky fell to her knees weeping and begged with shining eyes to be accepted into the service of the Potters. With a tolerant, half-smile Harry agreed to her wish. He then politely asked them to apparate them home and Winky broke down again at his politeness. Kreacher apologised profoundly for Winky's behaviour and said with a worried frown that she hadn't used to be like that. In the joy to be home they forgot completely about Winky's slightly over-emotional state. Their vanishment caused an uproar the next morning for there had been alarm spells on the door; and it was Hogwarts so no-one could apparate out so there was a panic that they'd been kidnapped until, 2 days later Hermione, who'd had nothing better to do at home and had researched them, sent a talking otter Patronus to the Ministry saying they were safe but had gone away for the sake of their sanity, making Kinsley Shacklebolt and Professor Minerva McGonagall, who received, it laugh in a very unprofessional manner maybe due to relieved hysteria as they'd been panicking until then.

Aggravatingly, some-one had shown journalists the general location of #12 Grimmauld place and, though it was protected by Fidelius and any number of other apparently impenetrable wards so the starers could not even see the doorway, let alone enter, they could stand there untiringly and look out diligently for them; to Hermione's unending wrath. They started to hide after a while and ambushed poor Hermione when she tried to go out with Kreacher to do some essential shopping. They were under disillusionment charms but soon regretted crossing her as she was a remarkably quick wand-drawer and good at martial art and other forms of self defence to boot. Kreacher instantly apparated them both safely back into the house but they were both shaken up. Hermione was understandably FURIOUS.

After that disquieting episode, Hermione racked her brains to find a way of spotting irritating hang-arounders, after exploding at an ill-fated Ginny, who always seemed to bear the brunt of Hermione's uncommon but violent flares because the boys either accepted it, defused it or were so confused that she ended up having to explain it; making her frustrated instead of enraged. The main problem was that she needed to do a permanent, _visible_, Human revile spell and she just couldn't. After getting the jist of what Hermione wanted to do she approached Harry and Ron and conferred with them about it until an irate, but moderately calm, Hermione interrupted them. Suddenly there was a loud pop and Winky popped in to ask what they wanted for dinner, but Ron didn't answer: he was staring hard at Winky, disconcerting her greatly. She gulped and stammered in a high pitched squeak "Please, Master Ron, sir, but, what is Winky doing wrong sir?" That roused a confused Gryffindor out of his thoughtful stupor and he smiled at her, "You are doing nothing wrong, Winky, and it's just Ron alright? Not master or sir." Winky replied with a frantic nodding of her head and Ron smiled tolerantly, they had had this conversation many a time but it never worked. As soon as Winky apparated out again the three remaining quizzed Ron on why he had been staring at Winky. "Well," he said, hesitantly, "House-elves can do magic wizards can't, like apparating into a warded building" (bemused nodding) "so couldn't they adapt the spell to do what you wished?" Hermione gasped and flung her arms around a tomato-red Ron's neck and kissed him, making his blush reach new heights. "What? Surely I'm allowed a good idea sometimes!" but he had a soppy grin on his face and looked ridiculously proud. And so the foursome and the two elves started planning how to make a new spell to show them what they wanted.

It went very quickly after they had sorted out who would do what; Hermione would decide what she wanted to happen and look up the best suited spells and charms for achieving her aims, Ron would strategically place all the spells in the correct 'places' which one first, which one strongest which one on top of this one or to the left of that one, so they'd work co-operatively and not block, outshine or cancel-out each other. Then Harry would look over his design to chick for faults, they found very early on that he had a gut instinct for spell-crafting and he could readily detect if the spells next to each other would react badly, they were like young children when you wanted to combine them; very picky with who they'd work with but working very well with some others. He also checked each segment as a whole wouldn't be affected aversely by the others, then he would craft. He would look through his Latin dictionary; finding words which best suited what he wanted each segment to do, compactly, efficiently and effectively. Then he would look at the words and slowly say them, taste them almost before, hesitantly, changing one syllable or running two words together and fusing them, often rejecting the sounds instantly, sometimes not even finishing the word. Oftentimes the others would look over and just stare entranced at the way Harry almost seemed to glow as he worked. It obviously suited him well.

Ginny and the elves worked together to find-out how to stick it on so it melded into the wards themselves and drew power from them, so as to not exhaust the castor, and how to make it read body signatures, emotions, and intentions: whether the person was magical, muggle or squib, and whether the person had any malicious, harmful or prying feelings towards the inhabitants of the house at the time as well as generally how they feel, happy, sad, ous, curious**, for these are all things a house elf can tell instinctively if they try, another way to help their masters or es so of course, they found a way to harness the magic required and locked it into their DNA aeons before. House elves had always loved helping but they had once been a different race of magical being, their magical skills had been unsurpassable, being able to easily sense and avoid blocks if they wanted to, but their magic was too enviable and a goblin cursed them out of envy while a human Lord helped out of greed, tying them to their 'owners' not that they minded, but planting a deep rooted urge in them to punish themselves for every mistake. The only way for the curse to be broken, and the elves returned to their former splendour, was for the magical population to go agenst their wills and try to get House-elves better rights and freedoms, not just one person but many, not one elf but scores, all going agenst magical urges to make the world a better place and then the next generation of the Elf magical species would be like the ancestors, beautiful, powerful and free. All elves knew the prophecy at birth, but if it was not acted on within a week the elf would forget and the magic would take hold. Dobby got around it himself, protesting from infancy so was only slightly influenced and he broke Winky semi-out of her state of magical suppression barely a week before his , but it took hold of her again quickly and she was only just starting to re-remember the tale due to the kindness of the four. Kreacher listened with a faraway look on his face and Ginny stored the tale for future examination and to tell Hermione at a later date.**

Finally their spell was ready; all the parts had been connected and smoothed, melded and fitted, all that remained was to cast it. They had decided to allow Kreacher to cast it while holding his and Winky's hands, to channel their will and power through hands that could morph the outcome and by-pass all safety systems, the wards had been designed so that nothing could join or penetrate them, a good safety feature, but the Elfish magic could slip around the mechanisms. "On the count of three, then" said Harry, openly nervous but also wildly exhilarated. "1….2…3!!" Kreacher opened his mouth and _sang _out the practical paragraph of spell they had devised: "ostendihi populusona, venfivadopetlanos, humanillo vadrutilunus, nullentiva dupunni, occultelospiperuus, ira forirootuss, niverusor eos, nigmenr inhumanillos, amicitargenymus PER VIRES!!" the spray of power that had been flowing from Kreacher's fingertips now became a torrent of bright magic. Suddenly Ginny fell to the floor, closely followed by Ron. Hermione fell to her knees at the exact same moment Winky succumbed to the inevitable reaction of so much magic being pulled from her so quickly. Within seven seconds only Harry and Kreacher were left standing, the two with the most stamina for magic, the most powerful. Suddenly the draw stopped and the two collapsed, and, barely a minute hence, the magic started flowing back into the six-some. Harry looked thoughtful. The still conscious four felt their strength returning and the Weasleys revived quickly, instantaneously the house gave a decisive shudder and was still, but they could all feel a slight difference in the magic surrounding the house, they could feel themselves in it slightly, a rather disconcerting feeling, really. As soon as they all felt well again, Ginny asked the all important question: "What _the HECK _was that?!!" and Ron chipped in with "Yeah, and why did you sing Kreacher? You sing well by the way." Kreacher went darker brown and explained that it was a new spell so it must be welcomed and made permanent and solid in the world of reality, an old, forgotten custom. The spell was so complex and the castors were filled with warring feelings about the colouring, namely Hermione liked and wanted yellow included, that it drew huge amounts of sentient magic from them to figure out what it had to do, an aspect of House-Elf magic, attached it's self firmly then flowed back. Simple. Then Harry asked the killer "Did it work?" Cautiously, preparing for disappointment, they approached the window and saw a crowd of humanoid shapes outside, red ones walking and a huge crowd of blue ones on brooms and on foot, milling. One purple, a squib. "Check Ron." He ran downstairs and called, "There is no-one there!" and pelted up again, "It worked" they were all very pleased but then Ginny's knees buckled and she fell in fatigue prompting an exhausted Winky to apparate her up to bed. Then Harry muttered something like "ostendosensus quodvene ficusper visoom". "Huh?" came the sleepy reply. "ostendo sensus quod veneficus per visum, Show feelings and magic with vision; twisted a little. That meets all the necessary requirements, I just need to compress it a little more then the spell will be complete." They all looked at him, astonished, but then decided they were too tired to do that; and crawled up to bed.

"Well" Hermione said, snapping Harry back to the present, "What shall we do now?""veneficus sensus visumuta, that is the spell!" Harry said with conviction and he lit up with a ling flame, the colour of the red sea, deceptive in name for it is the purest blue. The light was a conviction or a completion spell anchoring the spell, strengthening it's 'soul', the part that connects to harnessed magic, so it could be cast easily and safely by those who weren't natural SpellWeavers or very precise and strong willed. Harry looked outside again and some writing in the corner of the pane caught his eye. He willed it bigger and it obeyed, to his bewilderment, for he'd acted on impulse, and read it. The writing explained what each of the colours and out lines stand for, useful as the caster can will different colours for different things, it was a very flexible spell. He read: blue for wizards, red for muggles, purple for any magical beast, wizard with bound powers or squibs, wizards with such a weak hereditary connection to magical soul that, except in times of true need, they can't access it. Purple also lit up wizarding pets with magic , post owls and part magical beast pets like Crookshanks, half kneazle or half crup dogs with magical owners, muggle half-crup dogs, called Jack Russell terriers, now a breed of it's own, didn't register on average. A purple blur was flying around hectically outside, chirping in obvious confusion. The small, brown, tennis ball sized owl was affected by the confusion spell set on the house, owls can bypass a Fidelius so the wards were set up aeons before to keep unwanted main out, only an accepted owl could see the house. Ron gave a gasp and fell to the floor in a faint, Ginny and the elves, who had just popped in, looked at his prone form in bewilderment, then Harry opened the window, the colours vanished and the owl, no longer sporting a purple haze, flew in, it's manner showing huffy weariness. Ginny tilted her head a little to get a good view and her eyes widened in startled confusion, an expression imitated by Hermione. "Pigwidgen?!" they queried, warily. Harry nodded gleefully and Ron, who'd just regained consciousness, inquired to whether he was hallucinating or if Pig was truly alive. Pig had vanished during the final battle and it was assumed he had been either eaten by something or killed like Hedwig, they'd all attended a mini memorial service for the two birds and Crookshanks, who'd died helping the house elves, clawing and biting in vial and painful places, he'd killed three Eaters from severed arteries and about nine other bodies had scratches on. He had been crushed by one of Voldermort's giants and Hermione had wept for days. But now Pigwidgen had appeared, out of the blue, safe, fed and unharmed. He was also carrying four letter tied to his legs. _Four! _They were only expecting Ginny's Hogwarts Book list, and not till August anyway! What were letters with the Hogwarts seal doing arriving in _June_?

Ginny and the others looked equally surprised but took their letters. Ginny looked at the trio in front of her and; muttering about memories like a goldfish, she grabbed a still weakly fluttering Pig and proceeded to traipse around the house, looking for one of the owl cages and some owl treats for the bird. Left alone, the trio stared at each other in confusion until Harry, very deliberately, sliced the envelope open with his lovely, newly repaired and shining wand, and took out the parchment enclosed;

_ Dear Mr Potter,_

_ On account of the circumstances of last year, which prevented the whole school from performing any acceptable education and prevented you from attending at all for your seventh and final year, we of the Ministry decree that, as we are redoing all the year groups, you may return for your final year if you so wish, on one condition. Hogwarts is very short on staff so I regretted to inform you that you may only re-attend if you consent to be a Defence Agenst the Dark Arts professor for one of the older years. If you accept; please sign below, if not then just tear this letter in half. Thank you,_

_ Signed: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic_

_ Please sign here………………………………………………… ………..th Year_

Harry stared at the scroll, dumbfounded, then raised his head to meet the gaze of an equally astounded Hermione. They broke into disbelieving grins just as Ron, a slower reader, looked up from his letter. "Well" commented Ron, to heartfelt agreement. "They asked me if I would teach older-years DADA to gain my place, you have a similar request?" "I'm working for Madam Pince; we're sorting through the books to check for suitability, and I have to help in a few other projects" Hermione intoned mysteriously. Ron grimaced at her good humouredly "I have to teach third year currant affairs for History of Magic and make a wizard's Power Point Presentation for the other classes" his tone implied his immense confusion about his task. Before Hermione could explain about PowerPoints, Ron added "I was looking forward to a nice, relaxing freedom from stress and…" but he quailed in mock under Hermione's glare and raised hand and assured her he was joking, to which Harry had to bite his cheek to keep from grinning or exploding into laughter. The trio all instantly signed their names, Harry choosing to teach sixth year as Ginny and quite a few other DAers would be in that class. As soon as they finished, the papers rolled themselves up and vanished with a quiet pop, causing Hermione's eyes to light with speculation.

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A/N This is barely half-way through my original 1st chapter but it's getting rather long for my tastes. Please rewiew. The home-made spell is: 'ostendo mihi populus, veneficus vado puteulanus, humanus vado rutilus, nullus vado puniceus, occultus vel perspicuus, ira : rutilus foris, vereor : niveus, inhumanus mens : niger, Amicitia : argentums' meaning: 'show me people, magic in blue, human in red, none in purple, hidden or transparent, anger: red outside, fear: white, cruel mind: black, Friendship: silver, With strength' I thought it conveyed what i wanted it to do OK. Of course I mangled the words a bit as the real spells are all a jumbled form of Latin, but hey!


	2. More letters and a surprise

Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except the plot. I'm not JK sadly.

Terriblly sorry about not updating, I hate it when people do this but I also hate typing. I have the whole story and two others also planned out if that's any comfort? Just to say, you'll be lucky for an update once a year at this rate, specially as I'm just starting my GCSEs in September.

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Suddenly, a loud crash split the quiet, expectant and hopeful, mood, along with some rather imaginative swearing coming from such a sweet little mouth. Immediately after, Ginny and the House-elves entered the room, carrying steaming platters; Ginny had obviously found somewhere to deposit Pig as she was holding hers in both hands. The Golden Trio were surprised as they hadn't noticed Ginny leaving, the rather bad language was from Ginny, who had the grace to look rather red when confronted with Hermione's death-glare, because she had tripped over the Troll leg umbrella stand, that Tonks had been so apt to fall over and smashed one of Sirius's least favourite plates, which had been duly repaired by an elf, Ginny still being _just_ underage. Ginny put down the platter of food and took the serving plate carefully from Winky, handing it to Hermione with an abashed grimace. Hermione smiled and handed it to Ron, one of their new Tea-Time traditions. He muttered 'imago' waved his wand first at the plate, then around at Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Winky, Kreacher and finally himself before finishing by pointing it at the plate again and whispering 'transfereo'. On the plate appeared a moving image of the whole group of them, grinning and waving. Ron always did the transferring as he seemed to be gifted into it, they'd be more realistic and 3D, not to mention less dotty and painted looking when Ron did it, so they let him. Even the elves looked and acted like themselves. The image of Kreacher immediately ran across the plate towards the Harry image and bowed low, making the real people laugh and the two Kreachers blush with embarrassment. Still grinning, Ginny handed out some bowls. These too had decorations on, Patronus'. Harry's bowl had his silver stag Patronus running around the inner rim, it seemed to like running on top of what ever he was eating, Ron had a German Shepard, a slight change from his old terrier, probably because he was very protective but also more restrained as well as loyal now, Hermione had her silver otter, showing her intellect, caring, playfulness at the right time and practicality; they had had to do hers quite a few times to get it long enough to perfect though! Ginny's had a horse galloping around the outer rim, determined to differ from the rest, and the elves, who don't cast Patronus' got balls of lightning-magic, shooting out tendrils of flame continuously, all around the rim: Kreacher's was midnight blue and Winky's almost Chudly Cannons orange, pleasing Ron no end. Winky then proceeded to pour French onion soup into the bowls; which they ate hungrily, and after a quick 'Scourify', they moved onto a lovely stew, followed by treacle tart. The Golden Trio locked eyes over the meal, that was the exact meal they had had before the infiltration of the ministry, the last civilised meal until not-even a fortnight ago.

Winky was the first to break the uncomfortable silence by worriedly enquiring if they disliked her soup. Her high-pitched voice, full of fearful anxiety, brought them out of their dour reverie, sharply. They were all very quick to reassure her that her soup was totally delicious and she wondered off in a slight daze, muttering about how 'Sirs and Misses have no need to thank Winky, Sirs and Misses', still unused to complements on her cooking. They watched her leave with kind amusement and Kreacher confided that Mr Crouch had _never _praised her privately, only publicly to keep up appearances, and Winky was still suffering from a type of shock. At his words, Hermione's eyes flashed murderously and the others at the table discreetly cringed away as she bellowed "And Winky _**adores**_ the Crouches! When they never even praised her!" . Kreacher instantly started bashing his head with a frying pan, horrified at upsetting an honorary Mistress, yelling "Bad Kreacher! Bad! Bad! Bad!" until Hermione, mortified at what she'd done yelled at him to cease trying to bash his brains out.

It took a few minutes, but finally the boys and Ginny were able to calm Hermione and the House-Elf down enough to have a decent conversation about anything at all, though Hermione was still fuming visibly. Ginny was just contemplating how to distract her, or she'd be like that all day, when Winky re-entered the room carrying a tiny package and a very disgusted looking Errol. The four stared at Errol, mirth shining their eyes, and, unable to contain themselves any longer, burst into belly-aching laughter. Errol turned his head a full 180 degrees away in offended disgruntlement, sparking off more laughter; it gave them a better view of the source of their amused hysteria, Errol's collar. A new addition to his person, it was grass green and beautifully made, sitting comfortably around his ageing neck, it also had little clips and ribbons hanging off it at regular intervals, obviously for holding rolled scrolls of parchment as well as a small golden tag in the shape of a fireplace with Errol's name inscribed in the grate, lit by magical flames, and the Weasly's home's address, The Burrow, Ottery St Catchpole, on the back. He looked like a St. Bernard's dog, with notes instead of medicine or alcohol on the collar. The final new additions to his attire were two very similar bands of fabric, round each an ankle, with two ribbons on both, obviously for tying parcels to incase he got tired!

Once the teens had exhausted themselves laughing and sobered up; Harry removed the three letters clipped to Errol's collar and handed them to their respective recpitants. He put the little box on a table beside him and tore open the new letter, carelessly pulling off the Hogwarts seal and slipping it into his pocket for safekeeping later on. As soon as the letters had been removed, Kreacher carefully cradled the exhausted bird in his frail, wrinkled arms and took him upstairs to Buckbeak's, now deserted, attic; deserted because Buckbeak himself was still at Hogwarts with Hagrid because Harry hadn't the heart, or the resources, to take him away. Gripping the letters like a life ring, Hermione motioned the boys to follow her out of the dining room into the sitting room and bade them sit down on the puffy, red leather armchairs, modified by Hermione to be Gryffindor colours, instead of the original Green, silver and black. As soon as the trio were sat comfortably, Harry and Hermione opened their letters and sat back to read them. Ron just relaxed and waited to hear what they were about. Hermione finished a few minutes later and recited irritably for Ron's benefit "This is more or less what's written: 'Dear children, hope you are well, George is still rather subdued…it goes on like that for a while, ah, here we are, The little box contains something from Hagrid, Harry, I sent Errol to help train it, you'll need it for Hogwarts.' Hmm, I wonder what that means?" she queried in slight confusion, "OK, blah, blah, blah, please visit before school restarts as I have a _lot _of fan mail and presents here, Ron's room's overflowing!". They all grinned at the warm, fussing nature of the letter, though Harry felt rather guilty for leaving Mrs Weasly to deal with the Media alone and was alarmed at the descriptions of Gratitude Presents implied. Resolving to visit later on, Harry went back to reading his letter, a Hogwarts booklist and Hermione drew her one out of the shared envelope that both letters came in. Ron gutted his letter and read it out _"We of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry hereby send your booklists early on the chance you have discarded your necessary school equipment and are required to obtain more and so you have sufficient time to give notice to your currant occupation. Your old room has been granted to the First Years so you three must share a room in the Head pupil's tower, along with the other Seventh years, who will share separate dorms. I assumed you three would like your privacy and I know you have shared rooms and tents before so it should not pose a dilemma to you. Yours faithfully, Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress."_ Harry and Hermione's letters were similar but theirs also asked for help repairing wards and the room of requirement as well as the service of the two House-Elves. Teacher's Uniforms and Librarian's Uniforms were to be provided free of charge. The booklists were the same as Ginny's except for a few minor changes, 'Teaching Defence' by Remus Lupin with extra hints and Defence tips by Alistair Moody. Harry grinned wistfully at that, he'd got it for his 17th birthday from them already, the original with even more tips added in their achingly familiar scrawls. Ron needed 'Severus Snape: Sinner or Saint? By Reeta Skeeter, a fact which made them all scowl viciously and 'The Dark War' by Amanda Bagshot, Bathilda Bagshot, author of Hogwarts: a History, 's eldest niece. It was a history book about the war, featuring Voldermort's defeat and it is unfinished, they smirked at that. They all also required cheat detectors and class P spellchecking quills from 'Weasley's Wizarding Weaseys', another smirk greeted that.

Harry reached for the little package and pulled off the wrappings to find a small, silver box, covered in engravings and enamellings of reptiles and birds and a note. The note read: 'Harry, we were jus' lookin' after it till it 'ached. It's Hedwig's chick. It'll eat meat chunks at hatchin' an' the box is always the right temperature for what ever you wan' ta hatch. Dumbledore left it t' me in 'is will an' I think you deserve I'. Hagrid' Harry smiled at that then read on, a different voice filled his mind, brisker, sharper, more acute. 'The egg is fine, dear, the father is a wild owl, a pure snowy from somewhere, not one of ours but strong and healthy, I looked him over for you. The egg will hatch when you open the box, it has a statis charm on for now. The box can is also multi-compartmented so you can incubate many animals at once. Yours, Professor Grubbily-Plank'

Harry discarded the letter and grasped the warm, silver box, trembling with he didn't know what. He found that he couldn't open it, it had no lid and the youngest Weasly's and Hermione also looked puzzled. Suddenly Ginny's sharp eyes caught sight of an engraving of an owl and she suggested Harry push it. Harry gently ran his finder over the engraving and an enamelling of a keyhole appeared on the lid. "Oh! A magical keyhole! I've heard about those! Just say the password and it'll open if you're touching the compartment you want to open. Touch the owl again. Good. Look, it's glowing now. Say the password." That was all Hermione, of course. Then Harry looked at he sceptically, "I would if I knew it" he answered pointedly. She flushed then suggested saying Alohomora. He complied and it worked, to Hermione's satisfaction. Ron just looked on.

The lid clicked open and a soft blast of green magic rolled off. It tasted of unicorns and bark to Harry but the others tasted nothing odd. Inside, upon a cushioned velvet base, stuffed with phoenix feathers for the varying degrees of warmth required, was an egg, plain, creamy white but laced with cracks. The five, for Winky had vanished for no apparent reason, could easily hear the tapping of the chick within its egg. Just as the chick was breaking through the shell, Winky's disappearance was explained as she rushed back into the room, carrying a bowl of meat chunks for the hatchling. As it broke out Kreacher gently waved a hand and an image of how the chick would look like when she grew up appeared. She looked almost identical to Hedwig and Harry turned away with tears in his eyes and bolted from the room. Hermione looked worried and sent Ron away to find Harry while she stroked and fed the chick the rat chunks and Ginny paced restlessly. A few minutes later, Harry entered the room, glum but composed, followed, by Ron. Inside he was in turmoil. He already liked the chick and couldn't bare to be parted from the last shred of Hedwig, but he also couldn't bare to keep a chick that was identical to her. It seemed disloyal somehow. Seeing Hermione fondling and playing with the little hatchling gave Harry an idea. "Have her." He said bluntly. They all turned to look at him in astonishment and, when he nodded with a sad smile, Hermione jumped up and hugged him tightly with tears in her eyes. It would help her get over the loss of Crookshanks. "You'd better give her a name" suggested Ron, and Harry was instantly whisked back to when he heard those words before, when Hagrid presented him with Hedwig. His eyes misted over again but this time only Ginny noticed and squeezed his hand comfortingly. Hermione eventually decided on Rowena, in tribute to the founder who found the way to enchant the post-owl lines for increased intelligence, bonding and the magical ability to find anyone they know with ease. Smiling with joy at her new companion she wandered up the stairs with Rowena and Winky, leaving the others to talk quietly about plans for the coming weeks and just going back to school in general.


End file.
